


A Few Feathers short of Happiness

by SinceriouslyAmellPadalecki



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Platonic Soulmates, Please Don't Hate Me, Rare Pairings, That tag was a lie, ending is bittersweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-22
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2020-09-24 02:38:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20351002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SinceriouslyAmellPadalecki/pseuds/SinceriouslyAmellPadalecki
Summary: We've all dreamed of finding that happily ever after, one with our soulmate. But when you live in a world where Alien invasions seem to happen every other year, well, they aren't always guaranteed.





	A Few Feathers short of Happiness

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to Angst town. This fic is set after Infinity War, during and after End Game. However, I am not 100% sticking to cannon (there’s a big surprise, not.) This fic is like my baby. I put effort into this, tears were shed, and this is the most words I have written since I started writing for the Marvel Fandom. Please please be kind in your feedback. Also feedback makes my day, so I will love you eternally if you do give me feedback.
> 
> Big shout out to the lovely Wino for being the most awesome cheerleader as I wrote this, and for giving this her seal of approval. Love You Hun <3 <3

They were calling it The Blip, it was less harsh than the Decimation. It wiped out 50% of the world’s population, and not just our world, according to the reports that were coming in from Dr Foster & her team of nerds. Earth wasn’t the only the planet affected, and yet one Darcy Lewis couldn’t find it within herself to think about any other planet than the one she calls home, because it was on Earth that the person Darcy had grown to see as her soulmate. She knew in her heart that they weren’t gone, she could feel it in her heart. She wanted to reach out, but she had an agreement with iPod Stealers, with her new life she wasn’t to contact anyone from her old life. Okay yes, she technically was already breaking that rule by using an encrypted email address to stay in contact with Jane, but she didn’t have an email for Birdie. Darcy could hack into the network, again, but she didn’t even know if the network was still up and running. The world was only just getting it’s shit together, governments finally coming together to work on establishing some sort of normalcy in the aftermath of the Blip. There was a way of Darcy finding out the information she needed, but it would mean walking away from the new life she had built for herself since leaving Jane and her merry band of fellow science nerds, and technically she had signed an agreement with chief iPod stealer that once she left the protection of SHIELD, she couldn’t go back. But hey, the world was in chaos, her former mentor and coffee addicted best friend was saying that the whole Universe was in disarray. So one little phone call wasn’t going to hurt, not in the grand scheme of things. 

It turned out that it took more than one phone call for Darcy to get information, and what info she got, wasn’t the best. It was mostly second hand, sometimes third or fourth hand info, that Jane had managed to get out of the agents who were tasked with making sure her and her team were safe. Still, it was information, and Darcy was grateful to Jane, she had a starting point, the location of where he was last seen. Birdie was alive; she never doubted that he wasn’t; and Darcy was determined to track him down. 

It took several months, several days and nights of travelling by any means to various countries, but Darcy finally managed to track down her target. She watched from the shadows as her friend, her soulmate, unleashed his anger at the word onto the criminal underworld, dispensing his own special brand of justice. Tears slipped down her face as she watched, the man she knew from the days of Mexico, and then London a few years later, he was not the man who was out there, soaked in blood and rain. She went to leave, she had seen enough violence today, when a familiar figure caught her eye. Watching the only woman she had truly been jealous of, reunite with her Birdie, Darcy let out the sob that she had been holding in for far too long. Turning from the reunited friends, she made her way back to the rundown hotel she was staying in, silent tears rolling down her face. If Jane was there, Darcy would be getting a lecture about how she shouldn’t let jealousy prevent her from finishing what she started. But Jane wasn’t there, and Darcy didn’t have it in her to face them both. Any other day, Darcy Lewis would have stood her ground, but today she had seen too much pain, too much violence and bloodshed, and her heart could take no more. So she did what she had done once before, Darcy Lewis disappeared, and became someone she wasn’t.

….

5 years since the world lost half its population, as well as countless other planets in the known universe. Much had been done, to mend the damage done, but there was still more to do. Unbeknown to the world, the original 6 Avengers; Thor, Hawkeye, the Hulk, Black Widow, Captain Rogers, & Iron Man; with the help of a few new friends, had come together to reverse what was done, to bring those who had been lost, back to the world. And so they did, but at a cost. The world mourned, but also rejoiced, as those they had lost had been returned. Friegha Darlene Foster knew that the world had changed, she felt it in her bones, just as she felt it the day the Blip occurred. She didn’t know the cost, her life in rural Norway was one off the grid and away from the modern world; but she knew in her heart that their had been. It wasn’t until she ventured out of her small village, in the search of fresh herbs that Friegha learnt the cost. Friegha found more than that, she discovered what remained of Asgard, new friends, and one old friend too. Celebrations and commiserations were had, tears were shed, and ale was drunk. Friegha’s secret was acknowledged, and understood that it should remain a secret. With a conspiratorial wink, she was bade farewell, with a promise to return soon. Little did she know that that visit would bring forth great change, and the return of another face from her past. 

It had been a week since she had found New Asgard, and had been swept up in a great big bear hug by Thor before promptly being taken to the Tavern and made to drink copious amounts of alcohol whilst regaling Thor with how she came to be in Norway. It was a long day, and night, and morning. Friegha smiled fondly at the memory of Thor beaming with happiness when she told him her new name, and why she chose it. It had also made Thor cry, but he said they were happy tears, that his mother’s memory was kept alive through Friegha. She was thinking of visiting New Asgard later that day, when the sound of footsteps outside her small bungalow startled her from her thoughts. No one should be visiting, she didn’t tell Thor where she lived, and only the young children ventured up to her home, and they were all at school. Putting down her pestle and mortar, Friegha silently made her way across the room, and with cat like grace, eased into the secret passageway between her kitchen and entrance way, and waited to see just who had come to visit. It wasn’t long before her unannounced visitor made their presence known. 

_ “If this isn’t her house, I’m going to kill Thor. This best be her house, his slip of the tongue is the first real lead I’ve had in ages. Aww, door no, why you gotta be so loud? Why am I talking to a door? God I hope this isn’t Darce’s house, otherwise how do I explain talking to a door…” _

That sounded like… No it couldn’t be, he wouldn’t be looking for her, not after all this time. It had been years since they last saw each other, last spoke. It wasn’t him, it just wasn’t. So why were the footsteps that were getting ever closer to her hiding spot making her heart flutter, and her legs feel weak. Grabbing onto the nearest thing, which happened to be the cast iron griddle pan that was given to her the day she moved into the house, she swung with full strength when footsteps stopped right in front of her, the metal making a loud whoosh as it moved through the air, and then CLONK! as it made contact. Whatever, or whoever was in front of Friegha let out a curse.

“_ Aw! What the fuck, really?!” _

  
Darcy gasped. _ “Birdie?!” _

_ “Errr, hi Darce. Long time no see.” _

Friegha’s arms dropped, but she didn’t let go of the pan in her hands. Her whole body shook, and she wasn’t sure if it was due to anger or due to shock. Stumbling forward, her knees finally gave way, but before she could hit the floor a pair of arms caught her and helped guide her to the nearest chair. Looking up at the owner of arms from her seat, Friegha struggled to find the right words. As standing in her kitchen was Birdie, aka one Clint Barton, who looked like something the cat dragged in, dishevelled clothes and hair sticking up all over the place. Oh, and a nice bruise starting to form on the side of his forehead. 

_ “Birdie, how did you.. Thor. I’m going to kill him when I see him! Knew I shouldn’t have trusted him to keep my secret. I’m such an idiot, I knew I should have left. I don’t wanna move though. Ughh, dammit Thor, now i know why Janey had trust issues.” _

“_ Darce, don’t blame Thor too much, he didn’t mean to tell, honestly. he said he had seen an old friend from Mexico, and as Dr Foster now works for Stark industries, I guessed it wa…” _

_ “Janey works for who now?! She never said, the sneaky… Why are you laughing, more importantly, why are you standing in my kitchen?” _

Clint chuckled, he didn’t realise until just then until how much he missed being interrupted by Darcy, and just how much he missed spending time with his soulmate. Soulmate, that was a word he was still getting used to. It had taken Na… a good friend to point it out to him, that one Darcy Lewis was his soulmate, and he needed to find her. And now he has, and ‘oh shit, she’s glaring at me, act natural.’

_ “Ummm…” _

_ “Clint Francis Barton, you tell me right now why you are standing in my kitchen! Don’t make me hit you with my pan again!” _

_ “You disappeared. First it was to London, I found that out through SHIELD by the way, not Thor. Why didn’t you tell me you had moved?! I’m your soulmate Darce, and finding out you had moved away hurt like hell!” _

_ “Clint, I..” _

_ “I wasn’t finished Feathers! You moved to London, without telling me, and then.. Thanos happened and I lost Laura & the kids, I didn’t know if I had lost you, so I did some stuff, bad stuff, and then Na.. Tokyo happened, and you were there!!! Don’t think of lying to me, Na… You were seen. Why didn’t you show yourself?!” _

_ “Because you had Na… That’s not the point, SHIELD knew where I was, when I was in London. Jane knew where I was. All you had to do was ask!! But noo, you’ve got to come find me now, when I’ve finally getting over my lo… Why couldn’t you have just let me be Birdie!.” _

_ “I did ask Jane, she said she hadn’t heard from you!! And then Thanos happened, and shit went to hell. When we found a way to undo what Thanos did, I was happy, so happy. I thought that with the world being put to right, you would come back. But there was a cost... Na… Natasha sacrificed herself to save me. To save all of us. Tony, Stark he…’ _

_ “Saved us all, Thor told me. Or did the traitor forget to tell you that part when he told you where to find me? Tell me Barton, the truth now, why are you here? Why come to my door after all these years?’ _

_ “You already know why, Feathers. Don’t make me say it out loud.” _

Raising the pan, Friegha took a step forwards, anger bubbling up within her, she just wasn’t sure if she was angry at herself or at the man in front of her. Choosing the latter, she made herself as tall as possible, and with a look that could probably kill, she spat out two words. _ “Get. Out.” _

_ “Darce… Feathers, wait, please… Oww, okay fuck, stop hitting me already!” _

After being hit several times with the pan, Clint left. Not without getting one last long look at his soulmate though, and a 100% sincere threat to his manhood if he didn’t hurry up and leave. But at last, he left. 

…..

Soulmates, not everyone has them, not everyone who is lucky to have one finds theirs. And sometimes, those who find them don’t get to have their happily ever after. Darcy Lewis and Clint Barton, their love was one that you could write stories about, but theirs wasn’t a happily ever after. Well, not a traditional one anyways. A year had passed since Clint had turned up in Norway and Friegha (Darcy Lewis was no more, she was keeping the new name) had whacked him over the head with a griddle pan. Several conversations had happened over the course of that year, many tears, and now, one year to the date, Friegha watched as her soulmate left on a Quinjet, heading back to his family. They would stay in touch, she had promised, but she would never leave the life she had made for herself here, in the small hamlet up the coast from New Asgard. As the Quinjet finally disappeared from view, Friegha let the tears finally flow. Her heart hurt, but she knew this was for the best. It might not be the happily ever after with her soulmate that she once dreamed about when she was little, but it was her happy ever after, and that’s all that mattered. 


End file.
